AI, Without the Jargon
When the Answer Has Somewhere to Go
AI, without the jargon: Day 19. A chatbot answers questions. An agent takes steps. The difference is what you do after the answer arrives.
Theme
Adoption & change
20 pieces in this theme.
AI, Without the Jargon
Start at the Queue
AI, without the jargon: Day 17. Look for the bottleneck after the AI step, not before it. The queue is where your redesign begins.
AI, Without the Jargon
Flying the Plane, Not Designing the Airport
AI, without the jargon: Day 16. Do not ask how AI can help your current process. Ask what process you would build if you started today.
AI, Without the Jargon
The Speed Never Reached the Loading Dock
AI, without the jargon: Day 15. AI made every step faster and the output stayed flat. The bottleneck was never the work. It was [the space between the work](/ideas/awtj-17-start-at-the-queue).
AI, Without the Jargon
Proof From a Peer
AI, without the jargon: Day 14. Half your team uses AI daily, half have not opened it since training. The gap is experience, not understanding.
AI, Without the Jargon
Training Didn't Move Them. Pain Did.
AI, without the jargon: Day 13. Eight recruiters sat through AI training twice and never opened the tools again. One question changed it.
AI, Without the Jargon
The Knowledge That Leaves When People Do
AI, without the jargon: Day 9. Teaching AI about your business is a writing job before it is a technology job. The technology is the easy part.
AI, Without the Jargon
Everything In General, Nothing About You
AI, without the jargon: Day 8. You tried ChatGPT, it worked, and nothing changed. Here is the step between trying it and getting value from it.
AI, Without the Jargon
The Factories That Kept Their Belts
AI, without the jargon: Day 7. When factories first got electric motors, almost nothing improved. It took thirty years to work out why.
AI, Without the Jargon
One Metric, Thirty Days
AI, without the jargon: Day 6. You know within two weeks whether a new hire is working out. Hold AI to the same standard, and pick the number first.
AI, Without the Jargon
Compare the Cost of the Work, Not the Cost of the Tool
AI, without the jargon: Day 5. Everyone asks whether the subscription is worth it. The better question is what the work costs you now.
AI, Without the Jargon
Integration First, Features Second
AI, without the jargon: Day 4. The best tool is the one that shows up where your team already works. Power means nothing if it needs a new login.
AI, Without the Jargon
Do I Need to Hire an AI Expert?
AI, without the jargon: Day 3. Before you hire anyone, understand the one thing no expert can give you: your own expertise.
AI, Without the Jargon
Start With the Pain, Not the Shiny Tool
AI, without the jargon: Day 2. The mistake almost everyone makes is picking the tool first. Start from where it actually hurts.
AI, Without the Jargon
Count Your Repetitions
AI, without the jargon: Day 1. The simplest way to find where AI can help your business: notice what you do over and over.
AI, Without the Jargon
The Questions People Actually Ask About AI
AI, without the jargon: the introduction. A phone call at a splash pad convinced me to spend 21 days answering one plain-language AI question a day.
briefing
Shadow AI Is Already Inside Your Organization
Unsanctioned agents are running in most companies right now. The instinct to lock everything down is the wrong one. Proportional governance beats blanket bans.
essay
Pilot-Rich, Transformation-Poor
Most organizations have plenty of AI pilots and almost no AI transformation. Three failure modes explain the gap, and none of them are about the technology.
framework
The Stage 2 Ceiling
Why so many AI programs feel busy and change nothing: individuals get faster, but the value never leaves the desk. The most expensive place to be comfortable.
framework
The 4-Stage AI Maturity Journey
Every organization adopting AI climbs the same four stages: awareness, productivity, context to intelligence, and humangentic. Most stall at the second. Here is the map, and what it takes to keep climbing.